Not that long ago, downtown Worcester was all but given its last rites.

Its major retail center, the Worcester Common Outlets — known as the Worcester Center Galleria before that — failed for a second time in 35 years and closed in 2006. Empty storefronts were popping up all along Main Street. Vacancy rates in downtown office buildings were on the rise.

Things got so bleak that some folks at City Hall joked that the downtown should be rezoned for single-family homes and that Worcester had become a bedroom community to Shrewsbury and Auburn.

To say that downtown Worcester became a ghost town after 5 p.m. would be an exaggeration, but not by much.

But that perception is slowly changing.

The ambitious CitySquare redevelopment project, now under construction at the site of the former downtown shopping mall, will help change the image of the central business district by bringing in an influx of people to its office buildings and medical center.

The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has done more than its share to bring back some life to the central business district by renovating and occupying long-underused buildings in the Foster/Norwich/Commercial Street area. And the college will be increasing its downtown presence as it intends to double the number of students served by its campus over the next five to six years.

Meanwhile, at the northern terminus of Main Street, Worcester Polytechnic Institute is looking at the vacant former Lincoln Square Boys Club building as a potential site for its business school and a new business incubator for startup companies. WPI recently entered into a license agreement with the city that, in essence, gives it preferred developer status for the acquisition and renovation of that property.

And just last week a Westboro-based development group acquired two underused properties on Main Street and intends to renovate them into market-rate housing (60 micro-loft units) geared to graduate students and young urban professionals.

Other properties in the central business district have also undergone much-needed facelifts, making the downtown landscape a bit more appealing in the process.

But shiny new buildings and spruced-up older ones may not solely be responsible for changing the perception of Worcester’s downtown.

There are those who feel that two of the smaller things — the opening of the Worcester Common Oval behind City Hall and the extension of Front Street through to Washington Square — could end up being just as important.

The opening of the skating oval in late November has brought people — and, more important, families — to the downtown who normally wouldn’t have considered going there. Instead of being deserted during the winter, as was usually the case, the Common has suddenly become a popular destination point, especially on weekends.

City Manager Michael V. O’Brien feels the rink has not only helped change the public’s perception of downtown Worcester, but has also sent out positive signals to private investors.

He said the rink is an example of the kind of public-private partnership that investors are interested in. The fact that the skating oval has drawn crowds to the Common has helped dispel the notion that people are afraid to go downtown — give them a reason and they will come.

“The rink is yet another success for our downtown,” Mr. O’Brien said. “I feel it already has changed hearts, minds and preconceptions of Worcester and our downtown. More importantly, I think private investors have seen the potential our downtown has for being an 18-hour-a-day center of positive activity and vitality.”

Then, there was last week’s opening of the extension of Front Street, which reconnected Main Street with Washington Square for the first time in more than 40 years. Though the roadway is very short in distance, it has not only broken a physical barrier in the downtown, but a psychological barrier for the city as well.

Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, who called for the tearing down of the Worcester Common Outlets Mall and the extension of Front Street through to Washington Square when he served as Worcester’s mayor, is confident that the short roadway will usher in an era of renewal for downtown Worcester and the entire city.

“By reopening Front Street, the city will be reconnected and with the revitalized downtown the entire region will continue to grow,” Mr. Murray said last week.

That sentiment is shared by U.S. Rep. James P. McGovern, D-Worcester, and Mayor Joseph M. Petty, who said the opening of Front Street is yet another addition to the continued evolution of Worcester’s downtown landscape.

“The opening of Front Street is a signature achievement and a landmark moment for the city of Worcester,” Mr. McGovern said. “The resurgence of the downtown is real, and it is here.”

In the scheme of things, the opening of the skating oval and the extension of Front Street are two small things — very small things at that — but many feel they could prove to be big difference-makers.

There is already talk at City Hall that other underutilized downtown properties will soon be acquired for renovation and a more productive reuse.

“There continues to be great progress in the revitalization and productive reuses of downtown real estate as a result of strategic public and private reinvestment under way throughout,” Mr. O’Brien said. “Each major development, each storefront renovation, each new market-rate residential project are the building blocks of our collective efforts — building by building, street by street, and block by block.

“There will be more positive announcements in the coming months of the effort to achieve our goals of breathing new life into our downtown,” he added.

Make no mistake about it, downtown Worcester still has a long, long way to go. It has a host of issues that must be dealt with and there are no easy overnight solutions to them. Then again, the same can be said about the downtowns of a lot of other cities.

But you can hold off on any last rites for Worcester’s downtown — at least for now. There are signs that it is slowly coming back to life.

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